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Religion of Peace

Archive for the ‘Gates of Vienna / Big Peace’ Category

Our Norwegian correspondent Zylark returns with an essay about the persistent failure of postmodern intellectuals to perceive and understand the world as it is, rather than as they would prefer it to be.The Dogmatic Denial of Reality
by Zylark

Why many intellectuals miss the point, and many who are not considered intellectuals do not.

Education is a double-edged sword, especially in the social sciences. It is no secret that most higher educational facilities are dominated by the more liberal professors and other like-minded faculty. It is the prevalent culture.

And that is quite fine, in principle. The campus is supposed to be a free zone, where ideas are to be tested on merit, not prejudice. Which requires tolerance, a mindset ready to admit fault, and not least the recognition that nothing is holy, beyond criticism.

It sounds nice, and in the more nature-oriented sciences, this is how it works for the most part. But in the social sciences it does not. Various social sciences have forgotten about reality, and instead got hung up in their own constructed ideal view of existence. They mistake how they want reality to be for how reality really is.

That is how you can find people calling themselves scientists who claim one’s sex is arbitrary to one’s development and identity. That one’s role and identity in society, not least with regards to one’s sex and sexuality is determined according to learned societal stereotypes, not the genes and sex itself and the inherent predispositions inherited with them.

In this view any girl can behave as a boy, and vice versa. Naturally, however, anyone more inclined to following actual evidence (as a proper scientist would) can tell you that there are some very significant differences in the inherent psychological makeup of boys and girls. It is not a coincidence that boys tend to play with cars, and girls with dolls, generally speaking.

This denial of realities is part of a dogma. It goes under the guise of a liberal intellectual mindset best described as postmodern relativism. That is: all ideas have equal validity. This dogma asserts that all basic understandings of reality, and as a continuation morality and ethics, are equal. Boy? Girl? Doesn’t matter.

This is, of course, true in the sense that both sexes have equal worth, and should enjoy equal opportunity. It is not true in the sense that both sexes possess the same interests, however. Obviously, this is not a clear cut dichotomy. It is more a soft-edged overlap. As are most things in nature.

But you do not need a higher degree to know that most girls like to play with dolls, and most boys like to play with cars. You do need a higher degree to say that sex has nothing to do with a choice of favorite toys.

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A similar situation obtains with regards to the West and Islam. A basic denial of facts. Various intellectuals and politicians alike assume Islam is just another religion, like those practiced by, say, Buddhists, Hindus, or Christians. Strike one. Next they assume religion is by definition a force for good. Strike two. And finally, strike three, they assume Islam can be tamed. They are very aware of the more feral variations of Islam, but they think in some ideal world, when it encounters tolerance, Islam will be domesticated.

Indeed, some even think that when Islam meets the West here in Europe — and providing we Europeans give up a few hard-won freedoms, all will be nice and honky-dory. As the “peace researcher” Johan Galtung claims:

“If we resist, the Islamic future will be hard rather than soft. Immigration, the large movements of people in this time, will bring this along. No one can stop it. And remember, the foreigners in their time were asked to come here, and they came here for economic and historical reasons that no one can do anything to change.”

And this is a world-renowned “peace researcher”! What he is prescribing is that Western Civilization should roll over and die. To submit. We’ve brought this on ourselves, which is true, but we cannot resist, which is false.

Now, I’ve met Galtung on a number of occasions, and I understand his intellectual position. Indeed, many of his ideas and conflict-resolution models have merit. But only insofar as a few assumptions are met. In essence that there are some commonalities between two conflicting extremities that one can work with to create “a third way”. Not a compromise as such, but rather a new way of working together.

His favorite example is of the financier husband and Buddhist wife, who grow apart due to differing world views and interests. The compromise solution, is for each to do his or her own thing. Spelling divorce in the end. His third way is for the husband and wife to start a Buddhist bookshop. Merging the business interest of the husband and the Buddhist interest of the wife. All fine and good so far.

But I do not quite see how you can merge the “Kill the Jews and subjugate the infidels!” interest of Islam with “let’s all be nice to each other, and make a profit!” tolerance of the West…

Yes, pacifism and dialogue worked with Gandhi and the British empire, but in that case both parties were not that keen on actual violence, for various reasons. And neither party was hell-bent on forcing the other to submit to his ideology. Gandhi advocated the same pacifist approach towards the Japanese during WW2 as they came closer to India and looked like they might threaten the British dominion. How likely is it that if the Japanese had been victorious, India would today be a free country? And how long would Gandhi have lived pressuring Japan rather than the UK?

The fact is that civility works only as long as one’s opponent is civilized. In all other cases, only force will work. There are no negotiating with despotism.

Galtung’s hope lies in a benign version of Islam. Here in Europe we spent a few centuries taming Christianity. I don’t think we have the patience to tame Islam.

And most who live in the free world and see how Islam behaves more or less understand that on instinct. However, some with higher degrees in the social sciences still deny reality. They live in their own ideal world of the imagination.

Living in the real world, keeping one’s mind on it, brings a perspective that academia forgets at its own peril.

Our Austrian correspondent AMT drew our attention to the following article from Kurier, which features an interview with the director of a multicultural school in Vienna, almost all of whose students are now foreigners.

You’ll notice that the director — despite the fact that 98.5% of the children under her care do not speak German as their native language — still issues the standard Multicultural party line. She takes every opportunity during the interview to celebrate the diversity of her school, as if she were totally unaware of the devastating long-term consequences of eroding the native culture of her city.

Many thanks to JLH for translating it from the German. AMT’s commentary appears at the end of translation:

Multicultural School: “Bring All the Children Into the Boat”

98.5% Foreigners, Only 3 in 200 Children Are Catholic. Now, Straight Talk from the Director of this School in a Kurier Interview

Awarding of certificates at the most cited school in Vienna last Friday. Chechen, Turkish, Chinese, African and Serbian children romp in front of the entrance. One student is leaning against a house wall in a side street, furtively puffing on a cigarette.

Vienna-Brigittenau: In a row here are Café Amor, Pizza Capri, Mek Leskvac Charcoal Grill, Johnny’s Cell Phone Shop. In between is a dart club, as lonesome as the few Austrian passers-by walking Dammstrasse. Of the 200 children in the school at Greiseneckerstrasse 29/1, only three are Roman Catholic — a fact which has caused some uproar in the past weeks. Even Cardinal Christoph Schönborn took the occasion to say some words of warning. The reason: By law, religious instruction only occurs if at least three children participate in it. A close call. The multi-culti school is a drastic example.

Among the directorship, there is a mood contemplating closing the school, but also mild exasperation at the sudden attention. On the wall is a drawing by Anna for the director: “You are the dearest and most beautiful (woman) in the world.”

“This controversy comes to me as the child to the virgin,” laments Ilse Riesinger, head of the truly colorful “Butterfly School,” which has not been an isolated case for some time now. In an interview with the Kurier, the educator spoke of prejudices, parallel societies and why so many different nations in one spot in the “Vienna International School” are chic, and in Wien-Brigittenau are frowned upon.

Kurier: Madame Director, do you understand the excitement that flared up around your school after a newspaper report?

Ilse Riesinger: No, I was horrified! First, it was said that we only had two Roman Catholic children left and religious instruction could not be offered. But that report was in error; there were still three! It would have been nice if we had been contacted, to determine the facts. Now it looks as though we went out with our butterfly net caught a Roman Catholic child somewhere.

Kurier: Don’t take this badly, but a child more or less does not change the fact that, let us say, a great imbalance dominates in your school.

Riesinger: That is true at considerably more schools than ours. This residential area has a great multicultural background. There are Roman Catholic children, Islamic, Serbian Orthodox… Altogether, we have sixteen nationalities: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chechnya, China, Pakistan, Somalia, Poland, Germany, Rumania, Philippines, India, Albania, Slovakia, Macedonia

Kurier: How does that affect instruction?

Riesinger: Concerning religious instruction, it is logistically not simple. But we can circumvent the environment. It is sometimes tedious, but where is that not the case? I see it above all as a challenge.

Kurier: Many parents see it as threatening, when the children who cannot speak German are in the majority, which is a polite way of defining 98.5%.

Riesinger: I am happy to invite those parents to come to the school and observe. We make an intensive effort in pre-school to make sure that all children master their mother tongue as well as German. We take that slowly. Because it is our job to bring all children into the boat.

Kurier: And that is not a disadvantage for children who just want to learn?

Riesinger: We complete the same lesson plan as all other schools. To be sure, it is a pedagogical and cultural challenge. But it is also an enormous enrichment for both sides.

Kurier: Why is it fashionable to have so many nationalities in the Vienna International School, but here people wrinkle their noses?

Riesinger: That is due to PR on the one hand, and on other, money. The VIS is sponsored by UNO. The parents have a completely different financial background. Here in Brigittenau, you can have the multicultural environment for free (laughs).

Kurier: There are nationalities at the VIS and also German-speaking children but more equitably distributed.

Riesinger: Yes, but how are supposed to solve that in Brigittenau? Maybe send a few children to the 13th or 18th district? I don’t think the parents would agree. Although they travel to Turkey and love the country.

Kurier: Are there crosses hanging in your classrooms?

Riesinger: In some yes, in others no. We never talked about that. St. Nicholas visits one year but not another. We have an Advent wreath and have Christmas singing, but also Christmas song from other countries or continents are sung. When so many nationalities are all pulling together, it is lovely.

Kurier: That is certainly a subject of interest to FP party leader Strache. And for many parents, cultural identity is important for their children.

Riesinger: Basically, I don’t listen to what Mr. Strache says. He is always talking about a parallel society. But we here are a together society. We have to integrate and hold together, not discriminate and exclude.

Kurier: So, is the suggestion of Mayor Häupl to create Islamic schools a stupid idea?

Riesinger: I would rather not comment on that.

Kurier: Cardinal Schönborn has warned against a demographic development where religious instruction in Viennese public schools is teetering on the brink.

Riesinger: I understand that the cardinal is concerned. But [religious] instruction is taking place. There is an hour per week out of a total of 22 hours of instruction. Under the cover of religious instruction, it is about something completely different.

Kurier: It is still taking place…

Riesinger: We are trying very hard for a mix. We certainly cannot help the Church more than we now do.

Kurier: Mrs. Riesinger, do you sometimes wish you were in a different district?

Riesinger: Absolutely not. I have been working in Brigittenau for twenty years, first as a teacher, and for six years now as director here at the Butterfly School. I know the realities of life in this district. Schools are a reflection of that and we all have to deal with that, politics as well as society.

Kurier: If you could have a wish for the next school year, what would it be?

Riesinger: More teachers! I still need four teachers. After this summer, three of them are retiring; one of them is going on sabbatical. Maybe as a result of the Kurier report, a few will apply for our school at the Viennese school council, now that it is in the headlines.

Kurier: Speaking of teachers: are you a fan or a foe of the Kurier school attorney?

Riesinger: I regard him with a certain healthy distance. It is fine for every pupil to be represented, but I sometimes have the impression that bad news outweighs other news.

However, perhaps the negative headlines are just the ones we educators notice.

AMT adds these comments:

The establishment must be getting desperate to rein in its disciples: More and more articles are springing up in the Austrian MSM loudly praising the merits of multiculturalism and the need for immigration, without which Austria, as the rest of the Western world, will not survive.

This interview is particularly hard to bear for someone who is not a true believer. It is, above all, interesting to note that the headmistress talks about the difficulties of her own heavily enriched school, especially in view of the required religious instruction, but fails to mention that the Vienna International School (VIS) was built to cater to the needs of the United Nations and embassy personnel in Vienna. It is a non-denominational school, its foremost goal being the integration of students from literally all over the world into an international school system, enabling them to finish their school years, where otherwise most of them would lose a year or two in the “local” school system because of the language barrier. However, each student at VIS must study German. There are no exceptions to this rule.

One another note: the headmistress mentions that she refuses to listen to what FPÖ party leader Heinz-Christian Strache says. Considering that, she appears to know quite well what he says and means. As is usual for the multiculti fanatics, she fails to explain precisely the merits of students being held back because the majority does not speak even rudimentary German. In contrast, nearly all students at VIS speak English. That is an important commonality.

A slightly different version of this post was published in two parts at Big Peace.

Gates of Vienna will have a small niche at Big Peace. Working under their aegis, the Baron will be able to utilize the pool of talent in Europe and Australia who already contribute to Gates of Vienna. At Big Peace he can introduce them to a larger audience, and introduce Americans to important European points of view.

For example, his first two offerings on Big Peace will be from Fjordman in Norway and Gandalf in France.

The Baron will also be publishing there under his real name, but his pseudonymous contributors will continue to use their various nics. It is not a good time to travel under your real identity in Europe. The costs are too high.

As our readers know, the Baron has long been interested in European affairs. That focus arose originally from having lived in the north of England all through the formative years of high school and a bit beyond. Living there permitted him to travel extensively throughout Europe (and the Middle East, but that’s another story) and to glimpse his own country through the eyes of European friends. (And yes, what his friends saw was not the reality which the Baron had lived — but this misapprehension works both ways. We don’t understand well the realities of Europe over here.)

When we labeled our blog “Gates of Vienna” we were returning to a moment in European history, a moment that the continent remembered well. However, high schools in this country don’t study European history much so it was an awakening for some of our American readers to understand the deep historical resonance of September 11th.

[An aside: a friend’s children, who are in the process of transferring from a private Catholic high school to a public school, have run into a problem: their years of studying European history will likely not be credited towards their graduation. In that geographical area the focus is on African history. Thus these students are considered deficient in their knowledge of history. Agreed, the public school policy is ignorant on too many levels to count. However, this particular program proves our point about the harm of government schooling and the spread of “ignorance through education”. It takes tremendous vigilance to raise a child today.]

Big Peace has been almost a year in the making.

Andrew Breitbart recounts:

A little less than a year after announcing it, in front of Vice President Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and many other American foreign policy elites at Frank Gaffney’s “Keeper of the Flame” Award Dinner in October 2009, we are finally launching Big Peace.

It took nine months because this site has to be done right, and with Hoover Institution Research Fellow and bestselling author Peter Schweizer, we found the perfect editor. Because I am not a foreign policy or military expert, I needed to create a core editorial unit that represented the highest-end understanding of policy while at the same time bringing, at a time of war, a “boots-on-the-ground” perspective.

Frank Gaffney, the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy provides over thirty years of expertise in national defense including as stint as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Ronald Reagan. Jim Hanson and the mil-bloggers at Black Five are bringing years of cutting edge reportage from the front lines of multiple wars.

For the last 10 months, Big Government has been the “Big home”“ for these stories but Big Peace is now their proper venue…

There are a great many contributors to this project. As Mr. Breitbart notes, it concerns foreign policy, national defense issues, and military reporting.

Gates of Vienna’s small niche in this effort will reflect the concerns of Europe when it comes to America’s foreign policy. Despite President Obama’s inapt attempts to reduce America’s influence on other countries and to denigrate American culture and contributions, we remain (for the time being) the elephant in the room. Or, as it all too often plays out during the current administration, the ass taking up more than its share of oxygen and trampling the curtains.

That Gates of Vienna is included in this start-up is due to the Baron’s tireless efforts to build connections to those Europeans who do not like the way things are going in their realms, either. Thus, our first post at Big Peace is an essay by Fjordman. ’Tis only fitting that he be featured in our initial offering. His theme, NATO, is particularly germane at the moment. NATO appears to be yet another increasingly questionable transnational enterprise.

The Baron considered carefully before joining in the Breitbart project. Without a doubt, this is a good initiative but was it the right time to shrug off his nic and go public? The more we talked about it, the more we realized that it was indeed timely. Our situation now, compared to when we began blogging, has changed considerably over the years.

Back then he worked for an insurance company. It was family-owned and they were lovely people. However, they were also truly bleeding-heart-liberals and would’ve been to dismayed to discover their senior analyst was a (gasp!) conservative. Like so many others in our position, he had to be covert about his political philosophy.

Well, that job and the one following it are both gone. Nor is paid work in his field likely to come tripping up to the door anytime soon.

The main issue, though, is my health. He is concerned with taking a job in which he would be gone for days at a time on a regular basis. He envisions coming home to find me in some sort of puddle. I can’t say that his fears are unfounded. Fibromyalgia can disturb your balance and proprioception. Just ask me.

Jobs in our rural area aren’t plentiful but he’s investigated a few. Meanwhile, some freelance editing has come his way, and this kind of work may build into something more robust over time. Those jobs, plus the generosity of our donors and our savings have permitted us to stay afloat. It remains to be seen how long we can maintain, though, even with severe frugality.

The Baron has invested time and energy in building the European network. His dogged persistence has begun to bear fruit, but not yet in a way that brings in money. The money part may happen, which would gladden us — and gladden the hearts of his volunteer translators — no end!

I strongly believe in this mission in this time and place. There is a fittingness about it that makes both of us eager and willing to stay the course as long as we can. My role has become more limited as my health has declined, but I remain convinced that what the Baron does — his work in connecting people to one another — is important and will grow, given enough time.

Big Peace is a new pathway. It requires a new name — his real one this time — but the work will be the same: creating connections between Europe and America that will permit us to remain united against the Islamic menace poised to consume Western culture.

We are fortunate to have Mr. Breitbart in the forefront of that work and pray for his success in this new venture. The future of our culture depends on people like him. Of course if he does well, it might mean enough money to go around for his contributors. Now wouldn’t that be nice??

Meanwhile, to see the ‘real’ Baron, click here, and read Fjordman’s post about NATO.

By the way, we’ve decided to keep the “Baron Bodissey” nic here rather than change to his real name. After almost six years, through thick and thin, Gates of Vienna has been branded with Jack Vance’s character’s name and the picture of Bismarck. However, as things move forward there are bound to be further ventures under his “real” name, so who’s to say what change will bring?

For the moment, though, given all the time and turmoil “Da Baron” seems real enough to me.